Devex: What the budget bill says about the future of U.S. aid
“On Friday, United States President Donald Trump signed — reluctantly — a massive spending bill that the U.S. development community has hailed as a rebuke of the administration’s proposals to slash foreign affairs funding. … As they pored over the 2,000-plus page bill, development experts hunted for winners and losers — and for signals as to how lawmakers will seek to steer U.S. development policy this year and into the future. With this bill, Congress showed a clear intention to exert strong oversight of any reforms or major changes to U.S. development programs, and they maintained funding to programs with strong bipartisan support…” (Saldinger/Igoe, 3/26).

New York Times: Trump Signs Spending Bill, Reversing Veto Threat and Avoiding Government Shutdown
“President Trump, hours after threatening to veto a $1.3 trillion spending bill and throwing the capital into turmoil, signed it into law on Friday, yielding to advisers and Republican leaders who urged him against manufacturing a government shutdown crisis…” (Davis et al, 3/23).

Washington Post: Trump signs $1.3 trillion spending bill despite veto threat on Twitter
“…The legislation funds the federal government for the remainder of the 2018 budget year, through Sept. 30 … The spending bill is widely expected to be the last major legislation that Congress will pass before the November midterm elections, increasing pressure to jam the bill full of odds and ends, with provisions addressing areas as varied as guns and invasive carp…” (Wagner et al., 3/23).